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Sneak-Peek Sunday and Weekly Winners

Release news today (sad, sad) and a new work-in-progress snippet. First, the November release date for Pirate’s Alley, which I pulled from Goodreads, was apparently wrong. Not sure how that info got on GR, but I didn’t question it. The REAL release date for PA is April 2015. GAH. Yeah, I probably could hand-write the copies and deliver them by pony at that rate, but I wouldn’t have a spiffy cover and the wheels of publishing can grind slowly. Plus, a book release right before the holidays is a bad thing anyway, so in the long run the spring is probably better. Patience, chickens!

So what that means is I’ll have to come up with something new and fun to give you this fall to tide you over (I’m thinking a PIRATE story, how about you?!).

As far as I know (which apparently isn’t much), the paperback release date for Elysian Fields is still May 13.

Also, if you’re waiting for the print/official release of Lovely, Dark, and Deep, that has moved from May 13 to June 24. GAH, part two.

The good news is, ALLEGIANCE’s June 10 release date is firm.

Other news…I’m working on my first newsletter, which I hope to send out the first week of March. There will be exclusive snippets, exclusive contests, and fun things like the covers of Allegiance that DIDN’T make the cut. (It might involve Donald Trump!) So stay tuned.

Here’s a scene snippet from the work-in-progress version of Pirate’s Alley. Note that these scenes might or might not appear in the final book, and they’re first-draft stuff.

I sat in Arnie’s cab just off the corner of Tulane Avenue and Broad Street and tried to figure a way to avoid going into the the massive Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Building. Fifty years ago, the behemoth of stone and marble had been a marvel of lavish classical architecture. Today, it was a marvel that anyone survived a visit to it.

The weather sucked, the neighborhood reeked of danger, and the fourth floor was probably already full of pretes behaving badly. Even before the post-Katrina flooding submerged the first two floors of the courthouse in grimy water, wiping out case files and evidence, the building had suffered from dwindling city budgets, ongoing political corruption, and a rapidly deteriorating, gang-riddled environment.

Criminals were everywhere, so of course it made the perfect spot for the first meeting of the Interspecies Council, held after hours to accommodate the vampires. According to Alex (my hotline to the Elders), a horde of Blue Congress wizards, skilled in creation, re-creation, and illusion, had reconfigured the seldom-used fourth floor. The windowless space had been transformed into a meeting space now reachable only via a single transport drawn in chalk on the building’s front stairs.

A shabbily dressed man lounged near the spot where the transport was supposed to be, but I saw bright, sharp eyes beneath the brim of the worn hat tilted over his forehead. Enforcer.

“Miss DJ.” Arnie glanced in his rearview mirror, eyes widened. “You sure you want to be gettin’ out here? It’s almost eight o’clock. Courthouse been closed a while, and there’s no reason for a woman to be hangin’ around Tulane and Broad after dark. Nosiree.”

Unspoken was the “and I’m not coming back for you when you get your ass in trouble” message.

About Suzanne Johnson

Author of urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and suspense. As Suzanne Johnson, she is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series (Royal Street; River Road: Elysian Fields, Pirate's Alley, Belle Chasse, Frenchmen Street (March 2018). Writing as Susannah Sandlin, she is the author of the Penton Legacy series (Redemption; Absolution; Omega; Storm Force; Allegiance; ILLUMINATION); The Collectors series (Lovely, Dark, and Deep; Deadly, Calm, and Cold); and the Wilds of the Bayou series (Wild Man's Curse; Black Diamond).

7 thoughts on “Sneak-Peek Sunday and Weekly Winners”

O_O?1 year?! we must wait one year?! oh that’s so cruel but i guess it also means morte time for you to put final touch to it.
Even lovely dark and deep is delayed… wonder what teh publishers are thinking but rest assured we will wait 😉 ( as long as you don’t leave us with a hard cliffhanger for 5years i’m sure we all can be patient)

curious about what teh meeting is but with DJ no matter the time of the day or the place troubles are there around the corner^^

Thanks, guys! Yeah, a year–yuck! But Roger had the right idea. I’ve been playing with an idea for a novella called “Pirateship Down” for a while now, so this summer it will be time to put together that package of shorts, including “Jackson Square,” that I’ve been threatening to do for a while, and write the new novella to go with it. Just think: Jean Lafitte, an orange prison jumpsuit, and a rodeo. 🙂

Oh dear. 2015. I was looking for it on PBS so I could link to Amazon and order it and no sign of the new title and wondering why. SIGH! 2015. Some days I hate publishers. Look forward to a novella! Something to tide me over for a year.